After J.J. Redick announced an agreement with the Sixers this afternoon, the Nets are turning their sights toward a trio of restricted free agents, reports Brian Lewis of The New York Post.
Armed with $28.5MM in cap space, Brooklyn will consider Wizards forward Otto Porter, Pistons shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Jazz forward Joe Ingles. Any offer sheet the Nets submit to any of them can be matched by their current team, but that won’t deter Brooklyn GM Sean Marks.
“We have an analytic value,” he said. “We have a scouting value placed on these players, and if we feel comfortable with an offer to these players, whether restricted or unrestricted, we’ll make those deals. But we’re not going to go chase things.”
The Nets submitted sizable offer sheets to Portland’s Allen Crabbe and Miami’s Tyler Johnson last summer and to Houston’s Donatas Motiejunas in December. All three were matched, leaving the Nets empty-handed.
There are questions about the availability of this year’s targets as well. The Wizards have vowed to match any offer that Porter brings them. However, Washington’s attempt to re-sign him in late-night negotiations ended without a contract, and there are reports that Brooklyn would be willing to offer $106MM over four years, starting at $24.75MM for 2017/18. Porter is expected to hold several meetings with several teams starting Sunday.
The Pistons have also stated that they plan to keep Caldwell-Pope, but their signing today of Langston Galloway and the drafting of Luke Kennard indicates that a backup plan is being formed in case Caldwell-Pope becomes too expensive.
The Nets have arranged a meeting with Ingles, although Lewis sees him as a secondary option in case the attempt at Porter is unsuccessful. The Washington Post is reporting that Ingles may have a four-year, $60MM offer from the Magic, but Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel says the team’s interest in Ingles is being overstated (Twitter link).
No way Porter is worth a max contract to any NBA team including the Wizards. One game he scores 20 points and the next game he disappears scoring 4 points.
He’s only worth it if he’s the 1 or 2 guy to get above 20 pts a game playing 3rd or 4th fiddle means he’s maxing out at 14 or 15 pts. He’s good for the Nets where he could end up as the 2ns option to Russell and be that 20pt 3 and D wing. On most teams he’s be 3rd option and at max money you can’t Pay for a guy that may only get 15 pts a game. Give him the room to grow in that increasing YOY stat line and he could be a +Iggy/Gay
The problem with all that is they have no way to replace him. They don’t have the cap space to go after free agents and they’re trying to convince Wall to sign long term. The team getting worse won’t help with that